With no desire to delete, but wanting better shifting, etc, I got DPF on tunes from DP-Tuner on the SCT platform. I started with 35HP Tow Heavy, but got it right at the end of towing season so I hadn't towed with it. It improves shifting and adds a nice boost in low-end power, but I wanted a little more sport so I got the 50HP Light Tow/Daily tune and have been really happy with it, but had a caveat from Justin to watch EGTs when towing. I finally towed with the 50HP yesterday from north central Vermont to the Maine coast and was very pleased at its performance towing my 10K fifth wheel.
EGT1 ran about 550-650 in the flats, but had flirtations over 900 on the longer 6th gear uphill pulls, with one peak at 940 briefly. I had several uphill pulls in the 800s. Boost peaked at 21-22 psi and I got to the campground at 12.4 mpg for the 200+ miles driving at 62 mph on the interstate and 50 on the secondaries.
My plan now is to return at the end of the week with the 35HP Heavy Tow for a comparison.
I have towed with 5-Star at closer to 65 mph and got 11 mpg and a very bad Innovative Diesel tow tune that got 10 mpg. Stock got 11-12 towing.

 

Subscribed...this is exactly the way I'm going. I have emailed both the owner, Jodi and Justin. I have thought abt deleting before but have since changed my mind in case down the line I want to go w the 17 style later on and then have to deal w the legalities of the delete with selling/trading it in. But I do love my 16 though...

There's some other items I want to get for my truck first before I get the tuner. But thanks for posting up. Let me know how the daily 50hp tune works for daily driving as they said it doesn't regen as much as stock and what the mileage is like.

Since I'm subscribed here, I'll post up my results when I get my Infinity DX monitor/tuner with the Stock/6r140 tune only and the 50HP DD tune.

 

I just arrived at my destination pulling my 11k fiver on his performance tune. Forgot to switch to the tow tune before I left. No issues but will upload the tow tune for the drive home. I agree, his tunes are sweet!

 

Just returned home on the 35HP Heavy tow tune. First I will say that it is hard to feel the difference when towing, but noted some differences. The boost peaked at 19 psi most of the time but hit 20 psi once during an on ramp. I got 11.4 mpg, but that included a 25 mile regen that knocked me down from 12.2 to 10.2 mpg. I also had a light a light tail wind going with the 50HP and a light head wind returning on the 35HP.
EGT1 was mostly the same, but I did hit 950 twice when the speed dropped below the cruise control setting in 6th and dropped to 4th and heavy throttle trying to get back to speed. I never had that happen with the 50HP as it always pulled in 6th without dropping back more than one gear.
Even though I took the same route, the terrain is reversed for the return trip as the previous uphills were downhills so a true comparison would be to do the same trip and reverse the tunes. I may get to do that in July. But I would say for now that if you have a 10K fiver, you will be fine with the Light tow tune. If you tow something heavier, you should have a means to monitor EGT1 for the Light tow. I actually saw higher EGT1 with the 35HP though because of the 2 gear downshift and attempt to recover lost speed. However, the 6th gear uphill pulls with the 50HP were at 62 mph and the 35HP did the double downshift in a long 55 mph uphill.
A friend read this and asked if I had reduced my towing speed from 65 to 62. I replied yes as I lost 1 mpg at the higher speed. He pointed out that I dropped speed about 5% gained about 10% improvement in fuel mileage and only lost 18 minutes over a 6 hour driving day. I can't argue with his math.

 

Jodi Tipton knows his stuff, the man has been doing tuning for years and he is more than willing to work with someone to get tuning that will work for you. There are lots of companies that sell tuners and tunes for a truck, finding someone your comfortable with and that stands behind what they do and the product they sell.

The main thing with tuning is to make sure it isnt going to destroy your engine with too much fuel and timing in the tune, lots of tuning strategies out there for the diesel trucks., and I am sure there are good and bad out there but I cant say I have heard a horror story about DP-Tuner or the guys from 5Star tuning

 

That is interesting...keep us posted so we can see which one is better. Good stuff...


Appreciate your input. I like that they tune w emissions and keep it legal. As for deleting, I've heard of some guys doing better with fuel mileage and some guys really not. I want to stay legal...less headaches, worry and if something were to happen, you're screwed for the warranty.


Pocketlint, you running his tunes currently?

 

If you have a 12K and up fiver, it may not matter which is better. Both are fun to drive. However, given that DP-Tuner (Jody) is conservative, the Light Tow/Daily may safely tow much more weight than specified as they never tested more than 10K. It may just come down to whether that extra 2 lbs of boost psi is enough to cause problems for heavier rigs.
Now my concern comes to the cold intercooler pipe which has blown out even on stock trucks. I have ordered the cold pipe kit by Rudy's via Amazon.

 

I made the same Vermont to Boothbay, ME tow trip today, July 8, with the 35HP Heavy tow this time and noted a couple of interesting things. First, much was the same as the 50HP, BUT as with the return trip in May, I had higher EGT1 peaks with the 35HP as I peaked at 990 degrees once and 960 a second time during long uphill 6th gear pulls. And though 19psi was the norm when pulling hard, I had an on-ramp acceleration boost peak of 24 once and about 22 another time and it held that for several seconds until I approached the speed limit. Ambient temps were upper 60s to about 80 vs 60s-70s for the 50HP tow in May. At about 12-15 miles from the campground, we had heavy stop and go traffic. Prior to that, I was seeing 12.3 mpg so essentially a tie in that regard, but was down to 12.2 when we arrived.
At this point, for my 10k fiver, there is no compelling reason to use the 35HP Heavy Tow over the 50HP Light Tow/Daily and the Daily is more fun while unhooked. I would hazard a guess that a 12K fiver on an SRW would have a similar experience. DRW and 50 gallon fuel tanks may have different experience due to the extra weight of the truck.
I will do the return trip with the 50HP and if my previous experience is confirmed, will keep it as THE tune.

 

Even though I don't head home for another week, I swapped the 35HP tune for the 50HP tune and ran some errands. The improvement in throttle response is significant. It feels like the truck is 500 lbs lighter.
The clincher will be a 55mph long uphill pull that caused the 35HP to bog in 6th, drop to 5th and then 4th with hard acceleration to catch up on cruise control. EGT1 went to 950. I suspect the 50HP will do it in 5th gear and cooler EGT1. If so, I will just run the 50HP Light Tow full time and not bother to switch.

 

We made the final 120 mile tow home today and even though it was not exactly the same route (original test for the 35HP was Boothbay ME to home, this was Boothbay to Meredith NH and then home), it was the first time I was able to really see a difference between the two tunes. In addition to the previous comments driving unloaded, I was able to tell the 50HP pulls hills better with less shifting, either staying in 6th or just dropping to 5th. For much of the trip, I did see several EGT1 peaks over 900, but I had a couple over 1000 degrees as well. The pull that gave the 35HP a peak of 990 when it dropped to 4th, gave the 50HP a peak of 1065 when it dropped to 4th as well. The difference is that the 50HP only spent one brief stretch in 4th and made most of the pull in 5th. The 50HP also pulled a lot of hills in 6th gear too. This pull from Meredith had a lot of altitude gain that worked the engine harder than the route from Maine to Vermont.

So, even though I like the 50HP better, I will only use it in the East. If I go out West again, I will switch to the 35HP for the mountains.

Interesting note: %DPF Full was 90% when I left the campground and I thought I would be getting a regen in a few miles. Instead, it dropped to 80% with GPL dropping from 3.21 to 2.80 and it didn't start a regen until I was 15 miles from home on a downhill stretch. With the regen, MPG ended up at about 10.2, but was about 11.2 even while gaining altitude earlier.

It would be interesting to try this trip with my 5-Star tow tune. Something to think about. Seems like my fuel mileage wasn't quite as good as DP-Tuner.

 

Hey Smuggs, once you're back daily driving with the 50hp tune...let us know how the regens are. I don't know if it was Jody or Justin who said it regens less in the daily tune then stock. Thanks for all that info...don't have a camper yet.

 

The 50HP reduced regen intervals from 350-400 miles stock to 500 miles tuned. YMMV depending on your driving routine.

 

Thank you...I can't wait to get the tuner. Saving for it now.

 

I finally towed with the 5-Star tune again from VT to Boothbay ME and it was interesting to see differences. I loaded it a week prior to the trip and fell in love with the crisp driving and shifting. Towing, it felt strong and had no issues with uphill pulls. EGT1 broke 900 a few times with a peak of 985, but heading east is easier than the return trip. However, at about 40 mph it hunted constantly between 3rd and 4th, then again at 50 between 4th and 5th which became very annoying as those were common speeds on this trip. The other thing is under load, the engine makes a higher pitched rattle noise under load. I have heard this described as advanced injector timing and heard that is not a good thing. The DP-Tuner tunes have a deeper sound like a diesel locomotive.
The gear hunting bugged me so much that I loaded the 35HP DP-Tuner when I got to Boothbay. So while the 5-Star may have been a favorite unloaded, it certainly isn't for towing. I have now loaded the DP-Tuner 50HP and plan to keep it until I go out west again and will switch to the 35HP for that. The 50HP DP-Tuner has most of the attributes of the 5-Star and none of the quirks, plus a little more power.
BTW, the 35HP tune broke the 1000 degree mark on EGT1 2 or 3 times as the return trip has more altitude gain, so I am less concerned about the 50HP tune doing that. I won't be making that trip again until next year. A good comparison would be to make the return trip stock, but I hate to do that. LOL It is funny that I did an out west and back stock 2 years ago and was pleased with the performance, but once tuned, I don't want to go back. And on that trip, I only monitored oil temps and would let off on the throttle when it reached 245 degrees. I had no idea what kind of EGT I was getting.
I have to add this: I took the truck out for a spin after loading the DP-Tuner 50HP Light Tow/Daily tune and fell in love all over again! This tune is SWEET!

 

I contacted Jody about the 35HP tune being stodgy compared to the 50HP tune. I explained that it wasn't the difference in HP, but the difference in throttle response. I received a new tune that was in a different league than my original 35HP. Throttle response was great and shifting VERY firm at first then softened after 70 miles or so, very much a sport tune. However, I had occasional bucking at light throttle in 3rd gear. I had noticed that it shifted to 3rd under light throttle at what I considered a too slow speed and the RPMs would drop to 800 and the engine bogged slightly before accelerating, and determined that might be causing the bucking. Jody compared by 50HP and 35HP shift points and said they were the same and get him a log. I tried to log the PIDs he wanted for a couple days with the X4 before giving up and loading the 50HP tune. A little driving told me what the problem was; the 35HP was locking the TC upon shift and the 50HP was not. I told Jody and had another tune right after that didn't lock the TC at shift. So now I have a 35HP Heavy Tow tune that is more fun to drive than the original as it has better throttle response and feels similar to the 50HP Light Tow tune. I will tow with it next weekend to see how it does, but it is a great daily driver now.